European Design Accolade for Sunday Herald

The Sunday Herald has been recognised for its design in an Europe-wide awards competition.

At the 12th European Newspaper Awards, the main prizes went to newspapers from Portugal, Norway, Denmark and Scotland, with the Sunday Herald taking the prize in the Weekly Newspaper category. There were some 219 entries, from 27 countries.

And it was a double win for Scotland, courtesy of Edinburgh-based newspaper designers, Ally Palmer and Terry Watson. The pair – who have worked on redesigns for, among others, Le Monde, El Pais, as well as titles closer to home – were involved in a redesign of the Denmark newspaper, Politken, which took the National prize. The pair worked on the paper during last year and also four years ago.

Said the judges of the Sunday Herald: “The Sunday Herald is no simple Sunday impression. The newspaper appears more up-to-date, news oriented and modern. The newspaper masthead, with the strong contrast of red and blue colour, communicates a certain aggressiveness.

“Content wise, it is more about deepening recent news rather than tranquil Sunday topics.

“Special characteristics of the Sunday Herald are its front pages with their unmistakable optics and the double pages in a magazine layout.

In the Local Newspaper category, Portugal's Diário de Notícias da Madeira was the winner; in the Regional Newspaper category, the plaudits went to Norway's Bergens Tidende; while the Nationwide Newspaper category prize went to Denmark's Politiken. The judges also highly recommended Ireland's Gaelscéal.

Said the organisers said of newspaper design, in general: “The trend towards tabloid format continues. Last year, newspapers in the Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland have switched to tabloid format.

“Newspapers are more influenced by visual elements. In most visual categories of the competition, such as photography, infographics and illustration, there were more entries than in recent years.

“In German-language countries – Germany, Switzerland ans Austria – there is a trend to longer texts, offering more background information. We are seeing fewer short stories.

“In the online category, there were not so many entries. In the iPad category the Frankfurter Rundschau was outstanding. On the iPad, the newspaper becomes a magazine. This is achieved through the large photos that start each story. The reader-guidance is intuitive and it‘s easy to find additional information, such as picture-galleries and videos.

“With regard to the overall appearance of newspapers, there is no trend to uniformity. In each country, innovations are rooted in tradition: Scandinavian newspapers are more visual and have fantastic photo-reports; for example, Politiken, from Denmark. This newspaper is also an example of a perfect cross-media-brand: print, online and iPhone have a similiar design.”